See ya, March!

Happy Friday Yinz Guys! I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to kick March 2017 to the curb. Hooboy. I don’t know if I can’t remember the beginning of the month because the end was so crappy but I’m over it. I’m ready for sunshine and healthy kids!

Both kids are finally turning a corner with the goopy eye, green boogs, hacking cough plague that they’ve had the last 10 days. And Fynnlee has been dealing with some digestion issues that we can’t really pin down but my baby girl has been pretty miserable.  Her little tush is so raw and red she can’t even sit correctly. (Note the “my bum hurts” side lean). And the kids aren’t allowed binks at school but they made an exception early in the week. She was THAT miserable.

Not that you’d know by looking at this picture. Sass for dayssssss…

They’ve still been going to school because most of the kids there have a case of the YUCKS…but they kinda look like zombies with their red-rimmed eyes. Bubbles make everything better.

The activities continue though. They love building sensory bottles.

Working on that hand/eye coordination.

And painting is always a hit.

They always get their time to play in the MMZ. Building blocks.

Working on our gymnastics

And carrying our favorite yellow ball around like a purse.

We’re not going to talk about how my babies are 23 months today and this is the last time I can count their age in months. Oh my…I don’t know if I ready for this.

We have a lot to look forward to in April…a visit to Aunt Stephanie, Easter, my birthday, and it all wraps up with the big TWO at the end of the month. We can do this. Bring it on!!

Have a good weekend.

 

Weekly wrap-up and Weekend update

Looks like Tuesday is the new Monday! Jerry has been traveling for work and I’m just keeping my head above water at this point, so I ask for a little leeway. It actually hasn’t been tooo bad. He was home on Saturday before taking off again (he’s in Palm Springs…can we get a collective Whhhaaaaaa) and comes home tonight. We all miss Daddy at our house!

So let’s jump in with some pictures from last week since I flaked and forgot to post those. There were some pretty cute ones and I’m sure you don’t want to miss them!

The warm weather returned and that meant story time outside! The only thing that makes books better is reading them out in the fresh air!

My little Sunshine. She’s a fan of the playground, clearly.

Ball. Ball. Ball. Ball. Ba...you get it. He’s a fan of balls, clearly.

Fynnlee is too. We’re going through a big bouncy ball phase at the moment.

Throwing or riding. They don’t care.

Other fun included felt stars.

Sitting on top of the climber.

And making some art.

And as Easter is right around the corner, no better time for plastic grass! This is at the beginning of playtime…you should have seen the aftermath.

Fynnlee is absent from the picture above because she spiked a fever on Thursday and spent the day at Grandmas. She spent the day cuddling and napping and was fine the next day. Three cheers for quick recoveries. And for Grandmas (and Grandpas)!

Jerry came home from Trip #1 on Friday night and it was so nice out, we decided to take the kids to the playground.

Followed by a walk around the neighborhood.

The holding hands…I can’t.

Of course we have sibling squabbles, but oh my goodness…I love that they are best buds. And I love matching PJs. They will be doing this till they move out of our house. When they’re 30.

Jerry let me sleep in on Saturday and go to morning yoga (best husband award, right there). Mama needs a pedi, stat.

He took the kids to Grandma & Papa’s while I was getting my Zen on. And when he got home, we noticed the kids eyes were all gross and goopy. Greyson has trouble with his right eye watering a lot and it often gets gunky when he has a cold. Well gunky doesn’t begin to describe it…it was funk-y. So I called the doctor and got them both in at 10:45.

No pinkeye, just a symptom of their colds. We left with a prescription for warm compresses, nose wiping and lots of hand washing. They don’t have their 2 year checkups until 5/13 but Fynnlee weighed in at 29.15 and Greyson at 27.10. Why am I worried about what they’re eating???

It was a beautiful day so we grabbed some DiBella’s and decided to hit North Park. We found the most perfect little playground, tucked away from the main area and it was empty! (For you locals, it’s by the cannon, across from the gas station/ice cream shop. There is an entrance to North Park Mansions there too). The kids ran around and played for a good 2 hours.

Not to worry…we emptied out the soda from these cups and filled them with water.

Wawa is better through a straw!

The rest of Saturday was filled with long nap, grocery shopping, buffalo chicken chili and catching up on the DVR.

Jerry had to catch a flight bright and early on Sunday so we were up at 3:45.  I never really fell back to sleep because I know the kids wake up early…so I hopped out of bed at 4:15, made some coffee and watched the news. That relaxation lasted until 4:35 when Fynn woke up and Greyson was up around 4:45 #sleepwhenyouredead.

I knew I was going to have some cranky babes at swim class if I didn’t let them catch a quick snooze. So we left an hour early and I drove through Starbucks while they caught a 45 minute car nap. It worked like a charm and we had happy babes when we got to Goldfish.

Papa volunteered to help out this week and Jarrad may have lost his swim coach job forever.

That blur you see is her jumping into the water, which she did 800 times. No fear in that child!

Swim class was a success and I headed home with the kids for lunch and a nap. It was a beautiful morning and we spent the rest of it hanging out on the deck.

We are all happy Spring is here!

The kids took a killer nap and I finally fixed my toes, while watching The Challenge.

After naptime, I dropped the kids off at Grandma & Papa’s, went to Costco and then joined them for dinner.  Greyson’s eyes were getting worse and so was his mood. So after an amazing dinner of chicken, sausage and tortellini (which Fynnlee actually ate…food always tastes better at Grandma’s), we went home & wrapped up the weekend.

Jerry comes home tonight and we’re so excited to see him!  Hope you have a fabulous week!

Weekend Update

Happy Monday Tuesday! I’m a day late with my weekend update but better late than never, right? Let’s jump right in.

The kids woke up bright and early on Saturday. Fynnlee was up at 3:15! We tried to get her to go back to sleep in our room but she basically just cried for an hour and a half so at 4:45, I just got up for the day.

Greyson was up around 5. We did our usual morning routine (Mickey, snuggles, breakfast, PinkFong, play, play, play) and then we got everyone dressed. We were finally going to hit the water floor at the Children’s Museum! Yay!

We made a pit stop in the “Garage” (see what I did there??)

And then played with the beads/toys/light brights in the “nursery”.

Then it was time to get wet! I put their bathing suits on under their clothes so we just had to strip em down and change up their shoes.

The water was freezing! But they didn’t care. They filled up buckets and dumped them on their heads. They splashed in the fountains and pushed their boats in the river.

I looked over at Greyson at one point and his lips were blue and he was shivering. I wrapped him in a towel and said “You ready to get dry, buddy” To which he yelled “NO NO NO NO NO!” Ok then.

Jerry had an appointment that afternoon (fantasy baseball draft) and I didn’t want to get stuck wrangling the kids by myself so we made them dry off and get ready to go home.

We left around 1:00, Jerry went to his draft and I headed to Grandma & Papa’s, who graciously offered to watch the kids while I went to the grocery store. They fell asleep on the way to their house so I drove through Starbucks. I’m loving these Springtime cups!

They were fast asleep when we got to Lois & Paul’s house & they didn’t wake up until after 3:00. Driveway naps for the win!

Once they woke up, I hit up Aldi and scored the motherload. Cases of Le Croix for $3.99! And they were a 15 pack too. I bought 5 cases. #lecroixaddict

I also cleared their shelves of pouches.

Since Jerry was going to be out for the night, I was invited to stay for make your own pizzas. Grandma was giving the Beans their first lesson in Pizza making.

And picky Fynnlee ended up eating 3 pieces! That is definitely a record.

We headed home around 6:30, did a quick bedtime routine (pjs, milk, Mickey) and the Beans were fast asleep by 7:30. I watched the finale of “Are you the One?” and was out by 9:15.

Sunday was Jerry’s morning to get up with the kids and they let him sleep till 5. I almost got up with them when I heard Fynnlee calling “Mommy! Mommy!” but thought better of it. Mama needs one good day of sleep. Daddy handled breakfast duty and morning playtime until about 7:30 when the whole family busted into our bedroom for Sunday morning cartoons. We snuggled in bed for about 15 minutes, watched some Daniel Tiger and then got ready. It was time for Swim Class!

They insist on walking pretty much every where these days.

In the couple of months we’ve been attending Goldfish, we have seen definite improvement in the kids “swimming” abilities. Fynnlee is fearless and will jump in the water whether your ready for her or not. Her kicks are outstanding and we’re working on floating (who wants to lie still when you can flail around like a fish?). Greyson is a bit more cautious but has no problem going underwater. His kicking has gotten so much better from our first class (where the number of times he kicked his legs was zero) and he’s really good at floating on his back.

It’s often more trouble to get the kids out of their suits than the actual lessons but they really love it.

Jerry’s is giving free surf lessons to the first 3 people who comment on how cute Greyson’s bathing suit is.

After class we headed to Grandma & Papa’s for brunch. The kids fell asleep in the car on the way there so we all got to eat a hot meal in peace!  Yes, another driveway nap! They only slept for an hour or so and then had some bacon, fruit and cereal. And read books.

And watched Daniel.

After brunch we went home and tackled the typical Sunday stuff. Laundry, food prep, standing on the table which we know we’re not allowed.

It was a good weekend.

And because I’m late, yinz guys get a bonus of Monday’s school pictures! The kiddos were happy to see their friends and teachers yesterday.

 

I also had a discussion about their transition to the Twos classroom (cue heart palpitations). Looks like they won’t be moving till end of May/beginning of June. Which is fine with me. I can keep pretending that they are not getting older.

Hope you all have a good week!

It’s the freakin weekend

I’m about to have me some fun!   Throwing a little R. Kelly at ya to get you pumped for St. Paddy’s Day! Whoop Whoop!

But before we kick off our weekend, let’s recap the week.

It was a good one!

The kiddos had a little dress up party this morning.  They tried on beads, hats and glasses and got all kinds of festive for the day of St. Patrick.

They’ve actually been playing dress up all week. Girlfriend loves her beads.

And this silly turkey sure can ham it up in a hat!

They dyed their milk green.

Which looks pretty gross, actually. I don’t think they drank it though

And they made some shamrock art in the shaker bin.

These are their favorite kinds of art projects. Shake it up!

There were also wild times in the MMZ (it’s been in the 20s all week so no outside play).

The Beans love this yellow bouncing ball.

I know…you’ve seen them hopping on this ball in about 800 bazillion school pictures. But it’s a serious obsession.

When he’s not bouncing…he’s marshmallow rolling. Greyson is really into pushing things around these days.

She’s sour.

And sweet. She can turn on a dime.

And then she can really turn it up!

Seriously, this face. And that hair! Apparently Greyson ate all of his yogurt and promptly put the bowl on his head.

And then Fynnlee came to his rescue. Gotta keep her brother looking good (now if he could only do something with her wild hair!)

And that, my friends, was the school week. We’re headed back to the Children’s Museum tomorrow…and our bathing suits are packed!

Have a great weekend!

Weekend Update

If I’m going to start doing these Weekend Updates on the regular, I need to get better at taking pictures! So this one will be a little wordy but next week will be full of photos…promise!

Last week seemed like a really, really long one. Is it just me? And then the weekend flew by. As it usually does. I’ve been fighting off a cold for over a week and it kind of morphed into some ridiculous sinus infection situation. Who’s sick of being sick? I am.

So we laid low on Friday night.

There was plenty of snuggling with my favorite little monkeys. I was in bed by 8:30.

Saturday I took some Mucinex, shot some Afrin in my sinuses and put on my big girl panties. It was time for the St. Patty’s day bar crawl! First stop, Cafe on Fifth. This little guy was all kinds of clingy (fine by me!) when we got there but he quickly came out of his shell and charmed the pants off of all the Irish lasses at the Pub.

And Fynnlee was right next to him, dancing a jig and hopping all over the place. Hopping is her new favorite thing. Of course I didn’t take any pictures of how cute they were because I’m dumb (and Jerry & I were chasing them all over the joint). But they were pretty cute.

Next stop was the Pub in the Park in Swissvale. Which was NOT kid friendly at all. But it’s where my Jenny was hanging out for the day and I wanted to see her. Both kids passed out in the car on the way there and Greyson napped for our entire (short) visit.  Thank you to Jerry for hanging out in the car so I could spend some time with Jen.

Fynnlee got to say Hi to Aunt Jenny and then we were promptly kicked out.

Because “We’re really not allowed to have babies in the bar“. Why thank you Mr. Bouncer Man…I completely support that rule.

And…bar tour over.

Boy have times changed!

Final stop for the evening was Grammy and Grandpa Carl’s for dinner.

We forgot the booster seats (again!) and tried to use pillows to sit them up in their chairs. You can see how well that worked. Grammy made a delicious dinner of filet, asparagus and baked potatoes. And lemon bars for dessert.

Right after dinner I started feeling really lousy so we headed home and I was in bed by 7:45.

I have zero pictures of Sunday but it went something like this. Swim class, brunch at Grandma and Papa’s, grocery store, yoga, Jerry went to see King Kong and I got the kids in bed by 7:45.

And then these two lazy buggers slept until 6:00 am this morning!! Whoop, whoop!! I was up at 4:45, naturally.  They were well rested and ready for school this morning.

Looks like they’re already having a fun day!

Hope you have a happy week!

We’re supposed to get a wicked snowstorm tonight. They’re calling for 3-6 inches of snow, maybe more. Only upside is we have an extra hour of daylight tomorrow night to play in the fresh powder! Stay warm friends!

Life Lately – 22.2

Hey there! Two posts in one week? Yes, friends…that is correct. Here’s what’s been going on…

The sleep situation still sucks. That is all.

Ya know what? That is NOT all! Allow me to elaborate.

Fynnlee got sick and slept like hell for over a week. Then she started feeling better (I put a pillow in her crib to help her breathe) and she slept until 6:30. THREE NIGHTS IN A ROW!!

And of those three blissful nights, this little cherub woke up at 4:30/5:00 each day. (And one day fell back to sleep on the floor…where we just left him. Parents of the year).

And then Greyson’s 2 year molars happened and Fynnlee’s FOMO kicked in and now were back to 4:30 wake ups every day. A good sleep these days is one where no one wakes up in the middle of the night and manages to make it till 4:30. Shoot me.

And to top it all off, Mother Nature has lost her mind. A week ago we had a 60 degree sunny Friday and spent our after work happy hour outside walking in the hood.

Spring fever was here and we were ready to welcome it with open arms!

And then today…THIS.

 

It’s supposed to be a high of 26 tomorrow with more snow next week. I know we’ve had a mild winter but come on!  I want to trade in my boots for sandals stat.

But while it was warm, the kids had a blast hanging outside during the school day. They went on a nature “hike” looking for critters and bugs.

And lions and tigers and bears.

oh my.

And good times were had on the playground.

Fynnlee’s new favorite game is CHASE.  This is her pre-run face…

Bob Greyson the builder

Hula hoopin is her jam.

His too.

Wind is funny. Seriously, she thinks windy days are hilarious.

And he just likes to run like the wind.

So when it’s not sunny and temperate, what else have the Beans been doing? Shenanigans in the MMZ (that would be the movement matters zone for you non-Bright Horizon folks)

She’s not always go, go, go…

True story…I thought it was pajama day last week. So I sent the kids to school in their matching jams.

It was not pajama day. But they looked pretty cute anyway.

He loves rolling this marshmallow

And most of the time she’s go, go, go…

He’s a fan of the big yellow ball too. I’m guessing he stole it off of his sister and she’s in the corner having a melt down.

What?! A meltdown? Not Fynnlee…

They spend time goofing off in their classroom.

Cutest little photobomber.

More goofing. This time balancing apples on their heads. An apple a day…

Keeps the doctor away.

And lets not forget their art. Dinosaur tracks by T Rex

And Brachiosaurus (we know all we know about Dinosaurs from Pink Fong)

 

And when there is no sun outside…

We create our own sun inside.  That was the end result of these yellow splatter paintings.

So that’s what’s been going on in these parts. We’re pretty psyched for the weekend. We’re taking the kids on a St. Patty’s day bar crawl! kidding…kind of. Happy Friday!

Weekend Update

Don’t you love those kind of weekends where you have nothing planned? So you just go with the flow and hang with your people and feel totally refreshed when you start a new week. That was our time over the last two days.

Western PA was beautifully sunny albeit pretty cold. But no one wanted to be stuck in the house. So here’s what we did….

Saturday

The morning was filled with playing & naps (The Beans), Yoga & Grocery Store (The Mom) and prepping Taxes (the Dad). Then we decided it might be fun to spend the afternoon at the Children’s Museum. And we packed an extra set of clothes for the kids so they could hit the water floor at the end of our visit. Finally. Parental win!!

It wasn’t as crazy busy as we thought it might be. Saturdays can get really nutzo. We wasted no time heading straight to the BEADS!

Fynnlee is obsessed. Still.

Greyson played at the bead table for a while before checking out the giant light bright.

We spent the next 1/2 hour in the Garage.  Lots of observing.

Watching car races

And hanging at the ball table.

Then we psyched the kids up to leave by promising SO MUCH FUN on the water floor! The elevator opened and we immediately realized our parenting fail. I thought it was lots of fountains, and splashing and rubber duck ponds. Nope. Full on rain showers and hoses and an absolute need for bathing suits. Sorry Beans. Next time.

We were pretty hungry afterwards and thought a stop at Mad Mex might hit the spot. We ordered the children’s chicken quesadilla for our kiddos (came with rice & corn). Guess how much of it they ate? none. zero. zilch.

They did, however, eat 1/2 of Jerry’s french fries.

On the way home, we decided to make a quick stop and get Greyson’s hair cut.

He was a perfect little angel sitting on Dada’s lap and I’m swooning over his new do.

Sunday was pretty chill. We had swim class at 9:30, then weekly food prep and laundry while the kids napped and before you know it, it was time for Sunday dinner at Grandma & Papa’s! It was the first Sunday dinner we had at their new place and Grandma made macaroni and meatballs at Jerry’s request (it was his first taste of carbs in almost a month!).

The adults and Greyson devoured the meal.

This one…this one ate goldfish.  She’s lucky she’s cute.

And just like that. It’s Monday! I have 2 weeks worth of school pictures to share later this week so stay tuned!